Review: ‘Pocket Listing’ can’t make the sale with its strange design and poor taste

When you peel back the aggressive soundtrack, offensive racial stereotypes, gratuitous nudity, and music-video style editing, one finds that the Los Angeles real estate drama “Pocket Listing” is essentially a bonkers, beefed-up episode of the Bravo reality show “Million Dollar Listing.” The main character, shifty, disgraced broker Jack Woodman (James Jurdi), daydreams in the style of promos for the reality show, addressing the camera as if he’s a latter-day Robin Leach from “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”

Jurdi, who has the bearing of a suaver Corey Feldman, also wrote the script, which is directed by Conor Allyn. The plot follows the travails of Jack as he rises and falls in the real estate industry, finding rock bottom as a warehouse slumlord. He’s soon courted to broker the sale of a Malibu estate belonging to shady international oilman Frank Hunter (Rob Lowe). It’s his one chance to get back on top, and make a sweet commission to boot.

As Jack tangles with Russian mobsters, Chicano homies, his old compatriots at the real estate office owned by his former boss Ron Glass (Burt Reynolds), and Frank’s seductive wife, Lana (Jessica Clark), “Pocket Listing” descends into a chaotic mayhem. Every scene manages to play like the dramatic lead into an adult film, only with less production value. Enjoy a marathon of Bravo’s real estate reality shows for more nuanced characters and compelling story lines instead.

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‘Pocket Listing’

Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes

Rated R for language, some drug use, sexuality/nudity and violence.

Playing: Arena Screen